Lost in a Cave
by Jimmy the Gothic Egg
Summary: Sokka's day really wasn't getting any better.
1. With the Enemy

Stupid Sokka-Ty Lee fan girls… I should be watching anime… Specifically Strawberry Panic. That one girl just makes out with everyone.

Why are my drabbles so much better than my actual stories? Brain spurt.

**By the way,** these chapters might be kind of short. I apologize. I didn't want to make them long anyway, but I the first chapter turned out to be longer than I'd thought it would be, so this is what I'm going with.

_Lost in a Cave_

**With The Enemy**

_Stupid caves… Stupid Earth Kingdom… Stupid—_

Ty Lee's thoughts were interrupted as she pitched forward, letting out a loud squeal. It was unlike her to be so clumsy, unlike her to not keep her balance. In fact, it was unlike her to be anything but unpleasant, a bright bubbly ray of sunshine.

Yeah, big load of good that did her in the dim lighting of a cave she couldn't even walk straight in.

It was Azula's plan. The princess had told them to split up so they could find the Avatar and his gaggle of friends and close them off. They'd disappeared underground—half of them did anyway. Azula had gone tracking the bison flying through the sky, while she and Mai were forced to search through the catacombs beneath the mountain.

And it sucked.

It wasn't just that her aura had grown darker since she'd gone back under Azula's care. It was more or less Azula herself, whose aura was now so disturbing Ty Lee couldn't help but wonder why she agreed to this.

_Oh right… The carnival._

If she'd still refused… That had only been a warning, of course. Azula was persuasive in her methods.

So now she was chasing a twelve year old around the Earth Kingdoms and keeping up with his entourage. She didn't mind so much, considering Mai was right by her side, and Azula knew well enough to keep them "friends." But, still, running through damp caves when they might've seen a glimmer of a Water Tribe boy or heard the slightest crack of the Earth Kingdom girl's bending… It was not what she was really pleasured to be doing.

Ty Lee picked herself up, grimacing as she realized the floor was wet. At least an inch or two of water, which in itself wasn't so bad, but it could mean worse. A river or ocean nearby. If an ocean, that might mean the cavern could fill too much deeper, or, considering the amount of rain they'd been seeing lately, flooding. She tried to remember if they were near a coast, but she'd been wandering around so much she could be five miles from her starting point, or just around the corner.

_Stupid caves…_

---

Sokka was very unhappy.

In fact, "very unhappy" was quite the understatement.

As of right now he was entering the stage where he babbled unnecessary curse words.

It really wasn't the best day for him. The Killer Ladies were on their trail again, so they'd spent the day running around in the rain until they reached a few lovely mountains. They'd decided to split up, so Toph and he had gone into the tunnels while Aang and Katara had taken to the skies. He and the earth-bender had thought up the smartest idea to take different routes to avoid the girls coming after them, just in case.

That was, of course, when Sokka realized what an idiot he was, and that the idiotic plan was taking a very wrong turn.

He was lost.

Also an understatement. He was more than just lost. He was turned around, disoriented, and so completely blind that he figured he could just curl up in a corner and await extinction.

…That actually sounded like a much better plan than wandering aimlessly until he got killed or caught. So he'd just sit there. Eventually Toph would find him or… something.

"Oh yeah," he muttered. "This is wonderful. Absolutely fantabulous."

That was when the wall crashed through.

Sokka shouted as he was suddenly faced with two very angry looking women, both deciding to ignore him.

Delight filled him as he realized it was Toph fighting Evil Ninja Girl, and she was giving her hell. He quickly stood to help out in the fight, but the blind girl in the confusion obviously mistook the movement as another attacker and instantly the ground startled to crack. Both Sokka and Evil Ninja Girl were shaken off their footing, but ENG had one advantage over Sokka. She hopped to the side, removing a dagger in her palm to have a hold onto the wall of the cavern. Sokka fell backwards, reaching out to grab onto something and…

All he saw was dark.

---

Ty Lee looked up as the stones started coming lose. Were their levels to this mountain? She squinted at the ceiling, for once wishing she'd bothered to learn fire-bending, at least enough to have something to see by.

Her eyes went wide, and she ducked.

The rocks crumbled, falling right on top of her. She screamed, dodging boulders and rocks. She started running away from the mess, when one hit her in the middle of her back. She grunted in pain, falling face forward, already feeling more rocks beginning to pile onto her. Then…

Something soft.

There was a mutual moan of hurt, and she struggled to move away, brushing off damage. She jumped up, only to slide down again and land in a mix of stone and water. She had been right about the tunnel flooding, because the water had definitely risen, and it was not tugging at her to move at its pace. The rocks pushed her, and she grabbed at something, flailing her arms with ill grace, and found only rocks, air, and…

…_Cloth?_

There was a violent shudder, and she felt herself fall.

---

"Oh… Yay! I thought you were dead. Now Azula can't kill me!"

Sokka opened his eyes and yelped. A girl's visage filled his face, and he froze when he realized who it was.

"Holy—!"

"Hi," she giggled, placing a hand over his mouth. "I wouldn't suggest that. I don't know how much air we have left, and this is not looking that stable."

He raised an eyebrow and asked something that came out as a more, "Mfha?"

He looked around, and she withdrew her hand. They were stuck on a small isle, surrounded by water that seemed to be rising. She was right about it not looking stable. The rocks looked ready to fall at any moment. He couldn't see a way out. In fact, he was having trouble seeing.

"Don't worry," she reassured with a bright smile. "I couldn't hurt you if I wanted to. I think I broke my arm."

There was something horribly morbid about her upbeat tone. He stared at her elbow and thought she might've more than just _broken_ it. It looked torn apart, as if she'd slammed it against the rocks a few times.

She just smiled at him, and he groaned.

_It was so much easier when we just had Zhao and Zuko after us._

**Notes:**

So, a normal meeting between two characters that don't know each other well (but will in the end hook up.)

It's hard to put them in character. Sokka's normally there for comic relief, but I'm going to give him a more serious role, which is harder because it kind of brings him out of character. Ty Lee is always upbeat, which won't be hard to portray. This is strange that I'm having more trouble with the character we've known since day one, and we have a complete background and a pretty nice ancestry chart than the girl we barely no anything about besides the fact that she's an acrobat and she's of the Fire Nation. (And quite possibly a daughter of a nobleman.)

I assumed she didn't know too much fire-bending, and neither does Mai.

I'm worried about having Toph there. It's too convenient towards saving Sokka. But it really was the only way to get a good earthquake going. So no one point out that Toph can sense things. I assume there's a limit to how far she can reach out to, and I had them fall again for a reason.

I like Sokka's name for Mai. And just like Azula to run off and claim glory for herself.


	2. With Rising Water, Little Air, and the T

I do understand, **for those Sokka lovers out there** (and don't doubt that I'm not one myself. My love for him is ever-growing), your quite possible outrage for those who believe him a simpleton and merely there in the background. Yes, he's given some very serious moments, but the angst is not really there for him. Whatever deep trauma he is in fact hiding behind his smile isn't so bad compared to our other characters (:cough:Zuko:cough:). Certainly, I never meant to imply he was idiotic in anyway (and I did not mention him actually being an idiot. I just said his use was mostly humor related.) He is intelligent (as he's proven time and time again), but he's also a boy, and when he is not the main focus of the story, we mostly see him joking around and being, well, Sokka. Of course Sokka gets his equal share in the storyline, and we get to see all his faces many times over, but when I take a character I'm used to see being silly and rather boyish, I like to keep him that way. It has seemed that, yes, the more dire the situation, the more jokes he can fit in there, especially when the episode was silly to begin with, but this hardly seems the situation Sokka would be pulling antics in.

**I'm sorry if I offended.** I'm trying to get off that trend.

((That very long note is what you get for not having anything I can reply to. Now that it's over, we can get on with our story.))

_Lost in a Cave_

**With Rising Water, Little Air, and the Threat of Being Crushed by Millions of Rocks, All While Trying to Find a Way Out**

Ty Lee was in an incredible amount of pain. Her elbow felt like it was pierced with white hot glass shards, and the bone was exposed to the outer air. The water had risen up to her knees, and she scrambled onto the rocky isle, not even wincing as she placed pressure on her mangled arm and pain shot up through it.

The boy was staring at her as if she were a crazy person. (She wondered what his name was. She'd never heard it in passing, or if she had, it had gone over her head. Battle was not the best place to meet people.)

More pain brought attention back to her arm, and she glanced at her clothes, already cut and torn by the rocks. Ripping it anymore would leave her exposed, and, as much as they were enemies, she'd met fifteen year old boys (fairgrounds brought many of these about), and she doubted it would help the situation much.

She finally decided the silence had lasted long enough when she heard a ripping noise. She turned around, once again ignoring a wince as she moved her elbow back, and the boy was ripping apart his shirt. He pointed to her arm, and she held it out unintentionally.

"You'll have to bind it," he said grudgingly, and she smiled. "There's not much else you can do."

"What's your name?" she asked. She saw him bite his lip, taking her arm carefully. She got another surprise when she felt no pain from his touch, and she wondered how often he took care of wounds like this.

"It's not going to do any good," he said, his tone still reserved. She could see him cursing his morals.

"I think we have other worries," she answered. The space was getting considerably smaller, and her pants were soaking wet. "What's the easiest way out?"

He was thinking hard. They were enemies, of course, but death could put you in worse positions. Obviously he'd help her get out, and it wasn't like she could try anything.

Her eyes grew wide as he pulled out a boomerang with a sharp looking blade. He struck it into the wall of rock, and she realized he was looking for loose stones. She watched, not sure if she could do anything to help, scrambling away from the water.

After ten minutes of silence (that felt like hours. Ty Lee had only ever been able to manage Mai's silence, because she knew exactly what she meant with a shrug and a glance), a chunk of the rock wall fell away, splashing into the water, disappearing into the dark. There was a hole there now, very small, and there was more stone beyond, but it was a start.

She hoped it would not take much longer.

---

Sokka grunted as his boomerang bounced back at him, the rock too thick for it to strike through. The water was still rising (less so, probably meaning the flooding had slowed, which was an improvement), but there was very little room to move through. Bendy Girl was watching him, casting worried glances to the water and her arm.

He had seriously considered just leaving her behind, letting her deal with the problem on her own. But it was against his nature to leave an injured person, no matter if the person was someone trying to kill him.

_It might just be easier to stab myself in the forehead,_ he considered.

He reached to claw through the wall again, when suddenly it crumbled away, and the water began to drain.

---

"That's not normal," Ty Lee pointed out, attempting to stand up.

"No…" Sokka answered. "What are the chances this is good?" The question was more to himself, and she nodded.

He thought maybe Toph was trying to find him, but this seemed far more foreboding.

The mountain trembled, the rocks fell into the water, and Ty Lee jumped up and grabbed his arm.

---

Sokka was confused as she pulled him along, trying to halt her.

"What—"

"My name is Ty Lee," she said, stepping through the opening. "And I'd like to get out of here before the mountain falls down on us."

He blinked. He was absolutely baffled towards the strange girl, but now was not the time to dwell on it. With reluctant remorse, he followed behind.

"Sokka," he said after a minute of silence and running.

"What?" She glanced at him.

"My name."

She smiled.

**Notes:**

And that's all we've got for now. Do you know how long it took me to get this chapter going again?

Things happened far too quick in here, but I didn't know how to slow it down. I'll work on it.

I'll start the next chapter.

…Of something.

**Reviews, bitches!**


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